The College Crowd Digs Me

"End Of Watch" (Bill Hodges Trilogy #3) by Stephen King  (2016) Hardcover, 432 pages   This is the satisfying end to the Stephen King trilogy that started with his book, "Mr. Mercedes" and has now become known as the "Bill Hodges Trilogy."   The first two books were criminal suspense mysteries with solid plots and page-turning action.  I loved them both.  But "End Of Watch" is my favorite of the three.  "End Of Watch" is a nail-biter, as well, but this time SK dips the ladle into his bucket of strange tricks and dishes out some supernatural creepiness that kept me in the game right up to that final whistle.   But it's all the well-developed characters introduced in these stories that make this trilogy so enjoyable to read.  And none better than Bill, the detective and his friends Holly and Jerome.  I can easily visualize each one of them just as clear as day.  And as SK waters their friendship, we can see their acceptance and

"Sugarloaf" - Sugarloaf  (1970) I'd been keeping an eye out for Sugarloaf's debut album with their "Free Bird" signature song... “Green-Eyed Lady” for a long time.  Not an intense search, mind you, but if I ever saw a good copy, I knew I'd pick it up.  But for whatever reason, this one had been playing hide-and-seek much longer than I expected.  In other words, finding a nice copy of this album was a green-eyed bitch!  It includes their original 7-minute hit song...before later being chopped up into a variety of shortened and abused versions for radio and comps.  Plus, I was curious about the rest of the album as well. There are only six songs on this album and three are instrumentals.  The music is very Hammond heavy courtesy of the talented  Jerry Corbetta and has that early 70s rock vibe you would expect.  Most critics give the album a high 3 outta 5 and that's about right.  Sugarloaf doesn't really push anything forward, but it's pre

"Clear Light" - Clear Light (1967) Clear Light was a one-shot psych-rock band out of L.A.  There are mixtures of fuzz and organ on here with occasional jangle all in fair doses.  Nothing too out there, but lysergic moments abound.  Most of the songs are short...under 3 minutes...and the variety is pretty entertaining.  Clear Light made their own noise, but have been called a poor man's Love and a can of Doors light.  Me, I can't hear much of either.  However, Clear Light's producer, Paul Rothchild , was also working with those two bands.  This is not a must-own album, but it's not a bad spin at all.  There are no duds and certainly more to like than not. The group also sported a couple of members that played in other well-known bands.  Bassist Doug Lubahn played on early Doors albums.  And  Dallas Taylor went on to bang the drum for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young .  Lead singer Cliff DeYoung became an actor and has appeared in more than 80 films and

  "The Hawkline Monster" -   by Richard Brautigan (1974) Paperback, 188 pages NO SPOILERS: Cameron and Greer, the two cowboys in this story are best of friends and a no-nonsense “have gun will travel” kind of team.  Problem-solvers for hire, so to speak.  The cowboys are called on a journey to a big mansion in the middle of nowhere to help a couple of sexy ladies rid themselves of a mysterious and dangerous "something" in the house.  To say any more would spoil the fun. Author Richard Brautigan tells his macabre story in unique chapters of no more than one or two pages, and yet as the pages fly by, the story never feels cheap.  This gothic tale is weird.  It's both naughty and bawdy. Mysterious and dangerous.  And quirky as fark!   I loved it.  I never once felt like I was being put upon.  This is one of those “under-the-radar” novels that are so much fun to discover.  "The Hawkline Monster" is one of the strangest stories I've read all year. 

"Love Chronicles" - Al Stewart (1969) Looking a little bit like Michael Cera on the cover, Al Stewart's 2nd album "Love Chronicles" is a nice surprise and much better than I expected.  All six songs have good folk-rock melodies with occasional bites of electric guitar keeping the listener alert.  In fact, the musicianship on this album is high-caliber.  And no wonder.  Stewart's backing band had Led Zeppelin mates Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones lending a hand. (Although Jones is uncredited on the album.)  Plus Richard Thompson and other Fairport Convention mugs fill in as well.  The album is an interesting pickup just for this reason alone, but it's extra bonus for being a really good spin. Favorites are “In Brooklyn” and "Life And Life Only."   And the 18-minute title track... "Love Chronicles"   on side two is especially cool...with Page laying down electric swag between Al's confessional love verses.  The song is really

"People always go away... so they can forget where they were." Martin - (John Amplas) To have been cast in no less than six of legendary director George Romero films is a nice box of dripping, bloody chocolates.  A wonderful bouquet of dead flowers for the holiday season.  Each one a cult film lover's delight.  But it's for  George Romero's lesser-known, but critically acclaimed, vampiric curio “Martin” (1977) that actor John Amplas will forever be tagged and flagged. With an apple pie innocence and a disturbing out of rhythm naïveté,  John Amplas plays the confused and conflicted title character Martin with relish.  Is he really a bloodthirsty vampire...or just a vampire wannabe serial killing weirdo?  The film is labeled "horror" and blood is as blood does, but Romero changes the rules of what we have come to expect a vampire to be.  Babyfaced John Amplas walks a thin wire between Martin's deadly thirst for blood and the empathy he c

  "The Head Shop" - The Head Shop (1969) There is no feint, duck, or dodge here.  The Head Shop , from the state of New York, offers up psych-rock with some of the heavy stuff thrown in for good measure.  And it is a lot of fun.  The album includes six original fuzz burners...all fighting for purchase.  And three cover songs that are various degrees of all right and better than I expected.  Two of them are Beatle songs, and though I'm not a fan of Fab Four covers, The Head Shop does try to be creative.  The best of the two is their take on “Revolution” making the song sound like a chainsaw cutting through the speakers. The third cover is a remake of the groovy Bobby Webb hit... "Sunny.”   Here, the band turns it into something a little more ominous. But it's the originals you want to spin.  The closing track... "Infinity" is the trippiest of the bunch driving the listener into a magic bullet.  Also, the late and great jazz guitarist Larry Coryell m